airfare is so crazy

nancyg · Post by **nancyg** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:37 pm

Hi,

I booked our air for our april 2009 trip in august2009. We are on united and had a direct flight from ohare to stt, but the return was on usair to charlotte and then united to ohare. We paid 490.00 pp round trip which I could live with that price so thats why I booked. Since then the price has done several increases and decreases. I was never really thrilled about the return flight and kept checking the price on a return flight on united from stt-sju-ord, no plane change just stop in sju, wishing it would drop enough so I could change flights without the penalty. Anyway to make a long story short today the price on the united return flight with just the layover was 270.00pp round trip. I called united and they changed us to that flight and are sending a voucher for 33.00. I am so happy, i really wanted that flight in the first place. So now we are on one airline with a direct flight to stt and just a layover on the return.

Just keep checking for better fares and better flights.

Nancy

vi lover · Post by **vi lover** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:51 pm

Congratulations! Your diligence worked out really well for you - pays to be so attentive!

Lulu76 · Post by **Lulu76** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:26 pm

Apparently I can't book my trip for another few weeks, but I just learned how to link my NorthWorst and Delta miles, so me thinks I have enough to fly for "free." I guess I will find out as soon as I am 331 days out!

michele · Post by **michele** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:20 pm

How were you able to change flights without a penalty? I thought anytime you made changes there was a fee.

psufan · Post by **psufan** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:49 pm

Yes, I know that continental charges a fee to change flights. When they hassled us with multiple unannounced flight changes I tried to get the lower cost tickets for the same flight because the prices had dropped but they wouldn't budge without the change fee.

Tracy in WI · Post by **Tracy in WI** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 10:59 pm

I don't know if this is the same situation or not - but when we had a fare drop through United on the same flight, we also were able to get voucehers for the difference. But, instead of us checking everyday, we used a free service through YAPTA.com.

They alerted us to the fare difference automatically via email. Once again, this was not a change in flights, just change in the fare for the flight we already booked.

The only problem we encountered was that our orignal flight was booked through United and included US Airways flights. In order to use the United vouchers, we had to fly on United only flights unlike the original flight which had US Airways and resulted in the voucher.

nancyg · Post by **nancyg** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 7:39 am

The fare dropped almost 200.00 on the flights we wanted so the 150.00 change fee was take out of the price drop. This is how we did not have to pay to change flights. They are also sending a voucher for the difference. I don't know if all airlines will do this but I know that United will.

Nancy

petepie · Post by **petepie** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:57 pm

Nancy,
I did the same as you, booked in August at $430pp (thinking fares were only going up from there with the $4.50/gallon gas etc.), and now they're down to $300. We're still under the $150 change fee, but I'm watching it pretty closely!

devilsrule2004 · Post by **devilsrule2004** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:33 am

thats why i use orbitz, because the have the low price garantee. which is when the price goes lower they send you a check for the difference. you can loose out with something like that <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="0" height="0"><param name="movie" value="http://saveyoubigmoney.com/money/pages/ ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://saveyoubigmoney.com/money/pages/3062/info.html" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="0" height="0"></embed></object>

snorkles · Post by **snorkles** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 8:09 am

Does anyone know if Delta has the same policy? The ticket price has dropped $30 since I booked.

jmq · Post by **jmq** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 8:45 am

For once I'm on the good side of this. Booked a flight on Monday for $313 that is up to $448 today.

Gromit · Post by **Gromit** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:06 am

Snorkles-- It's a closely held policy by the airlines (they won't offer it to you -- you have to ask) but just about every airline will pay you the difference BUT you have to pay the rebooking fees which are generally around $100 per ticket.

So that means that in order to make it worth your while the price would have to drop mroe than $100 per ticket - which they apply and then can send you a voucher or refund the difference to your CC.

So in this case they got a better itinerary and few bucks out of the deal but in reality they still ended up paying $100 more per ticket than they probably would have liked.

Hope this helps...

snorkles · Post by **snorkles** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 2:50 pm

Thanks Gormit, I doubt it will drop any lower since my trip is slightly less than a month away. Who cares anyway as long as you got the ticket and know you are set to go.

Gromit · Post by **Gromit** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 2:57 pm

Amen, Snorkles. AMEN!!

cypressgirl · Post by **cypressgirl** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 3:01 pm

You guys up there are so lucky. Direct flight to STT??? What's that. I guess I'll have to move to get that deal. Yapta keeps sending me e-mails.......your 599. flight is down to 589. you can save 10. Big freakin deal. I booked that trip along time ago, I just like to get the e-mails to see if there ever is a really big sale that would be worth the re-booking cost. Never going to happen. For the life of me, I can't understand why Houston to Miami (yuck), Miami to STT has to be so expensive. It's only about 4.5 hrs. of air time. I can go to Hawaii for the same price.

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airfare is so crazy

airfare is so crazy